DVDRW drive cant read DVD Movies - Is it Region Locking or ... ?!?

[quantass]

I live in Canada and own a Liteon SOHW 832s DVDRW (version VS0J 2005/07/21). Recently the DVD region count hit 0 but i used LtnRPC to reset both the vendor and user region count back to 5. It claims the drive region is not set yet after the patch.

I have no idea if this is even related but when i try to play any commercial bought DVD discs from the DVDRW either Windows XP treats it as a blank DVDR or the drive endlessly spins up and clicks never showing the movie. Is this what happens when a drive is still dvd region locked playing a video outside its region?

I am able to play CDs fine and can read DVDRs (data files or burnt region-free movies). But actual commercial DVD movies arent playing anymore. I've tried things out in safe mode but same effect.

Thanks for any assistance.

[aedipuss]

you need to set the drive to the region of the dvd. try right clicking on the drive icon/properties/hardware/the drive/properties/dvd region tab - set new region.

[quantass]

ok i set the dvd region as you said to Canada (region 1) and still when i insert my local commercial DVDs it still spins up and clicks for several seconds then shows a blank explorer window. FYI, when i cold reboot the system while leaving the DVD within the drive, i normally get a POST message of "Boot From CD...". Normal. But it sits there indefinitely spinning up and clicking. This has never happened a month ago.

Any other ideas?

[jman98]

Sounds to me like your drive has gone bad. DVD uses a different laser than CD, so when CDs work and DVDs don't, it usually means there is a problem with the DVD laser. You can invest in a lens cleaning kit if you wish, but the odds are that it won't help. If your drive is covered under warranty, I'd ask for a new one.

[quantass]

i was thinking the same thing jman, but why can i read DVDR data discs, and even DVDR dvd movies that i made just fine? Its the commercial ones that seem to be an issue.

[[_chef_]]

Clean the drive, uninstall the ide channels in devicemanager and also delete the upper & lower filters.

[jman98]

I somehow missed the point that DVD-R worked for you. You might try a cleaning kit, but if that fails, you'll still probably have to replace the drive.

[budz]

Your Liteon SOHW 832s is a older dvd burner which could be dying a slow death. Buy a new dvd burner which costs between $35-$40. Your DVDR's are region free so I see no problem in them playing back correctly. But commercial dvds are another story since they do have region codes on them. My suggestion is to remove the drive and install it on another computer to see if the problem still exists. For the time spent on testing the drive you could just buy a new dvd burner that has better read/write features than the Liteon SOHW 832s. Just my 2 cents! :wink:


P.S. To the moderators: What's up with the "Wink"icon? Sometimes it shows & at other times it doesn't!